Data Dump: Who Won E3 2018?

It's always been a dumb question. But, what if we applied a little math and science to it anyway? If you were in chat during any of the press conferences media briefings showcases, then you may have seen a poll at the end asking you to rate the show from 1-10. Well, I took all that data and used it to determine who the Giant Bomb Community thinks "won E3 2018."

Check a look!

Electronic Arts

Microsoft

Bethesda

Square Enix

Ubisoft

Sony

Nintendo

Overall

Prior to the first GB @ Nite show on Tuesday, I asked everyone who they thought won E3. This was the result:

How does that single vote stand up to all the data collected immediately after the conference?

Aside from Ubisoft and Bethesda being flipped (very narrowly), the data and the vote actually match.

Ultimately, it's clear that Microsoft won E3 2018 according to the Giant Bomb Community.

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wow I don't know how sony did so well. I would wager if you ask the people who were actually at event score would have been incredibly low. I guess the benefit from only only showing 4 games is those games are huge titles that get people excited.

Fantastic charts, dude!

It's interesting seeing how Bethesda and Ubisoft's scores are so close, but have such a large difference in #1 votes.

Hey Marino,

Just wanted to say thanks for all the ton of work you put into uploading Trailers as you always do. Really appreciate it man.

@slag: Thanks. I'm working on some data for that too.

@bofooq: By everyone else doing pretty poor. I'm surprised they got above Bethesda but I suppose the platform holders are always going to have some sort of built in advantage with these sort of things because you can only pick one.

@marino great work!

Ha, great descriptor for Bethesda. They should have also had CGI clip of Fallout 6, Elder Scrolls 7 and DOOM ETERNAL 2-10 while they where up there.

Good stuff! About squares with how I'd rate the conferences. I'd probably go higher for Nintendo just because it was 30 minutes of the one thing I'm ever interested in seeing at their conferences.

This lines up with my thoughts pretty well. Microsoft was in a league of their own, while EA, Square and Nintendo botched it. I might put Square slightly above Nintendo for having 2 new IP that both made me want to learn more about them. (The Quiet Man & Babylon's Fall). Kingdom Hearts 3 was shown too much by that point already, but that trailer was pretty good as well.

Yes! I was hoping for exactly this after participating in all of the polls.

The problem with Microsoft is almost everything was third party, so they mostly were only showing me games I will play on PC or PS4.

At least they sold me on Forza Horizon 4. I did like their conference but I expected more exclusivity.

It is like they have been "Gears or Halo" for the last 5 years.

@jaytow: Nintendo blew their load last year. They had to make the Switch a success so they doubled down on release games. They'll come back swinging in a year or two.

Talking about who "won E3" has always struck me as actually being about "which company put on the best show to sell you video games, most of which you can probably get wherever." In that sense, I think it was a pretty one-sided affair for this year, with Microsoft kinda running away with it for me, even if I don't really have any interest in getting an Xbox One or spending more time than I have to with the Windows Store. I think it would've been a little more of a fight if Sony hadn't done their weird thing with the musical numbers and moving people between rooms, because the actual showcase of games they did was solid.

Meanwhile, some of those other shows were borderline intolerable even with the Bomb Crew's commentary. It feels like Nintendo dropped the ball a little. For as much as I sometimes feel like video game hype cycles are silly and we're going to forget about most of this in 6-8 months when something new pops onto the horizon, they should've had at least something big other than Smash Bros there. Like, I'm excited about the new console Fire Emblem, but that's not really the kinda thing that you can do a hard sell on during a show like this.

Cyberpunk & Kingdom Come DLC were the most interesting things from e3 this year for me, but from those listed I would vote Bethesda

Microsoft clearly had the best show. The fact that they showed off PlayStation games better than Sony did is a big plus.

CD Projekt Red is very clearly the true winner this year though.

Didn't really get that excited about any of the big companies or lineups this year. I've been looking to get a Switch, so I was just disappointed to see that Nintendo's show was a disaster. Didn't see much interesting for PS4 that isn't also coming to PC, which is where I'd prefer to play it, if at all. Bethesda had... an early access survival game with online & crafting, and a heightmap for Elder Scrolls VI.

Yeah, I dunno. FromSoft didn't have their own presser but at least to to me, they won by a mile. Sekiro had an incredible first showing. Major GOTY warning if they can pull it off. Also random Metal Wolf Chaos 4K60 on PC? Hype. Déraciné seems like a completely different thing and From is kind of at its best when they have creative freedom so I can't wait. It still OOZES with FromSoft style storytelling. Can't wait to find out more about it, even if it's a VR title. Unfortunately, still no 60fps PC ports of Demon's Souls and Bloodborne. C'mon From (and you too, Sony).

CDPR had a great showing of Cyberpunk 2077 too. OG Netrunner was the first CCG I ever played, so I'm very excited about that one.

Microsoft sold me on a Game Pass subscription.

Devolver scored Mechs/10

I think all the scores make sense and all the reaction scoring makes sense.


Microsoft put on a good show, but at the end of the day they don't have the games. They 3/4 of what they showed was not even a timed exclusive let alone an actual first or second party. They did really well purchasing studios and building a portfolio again, but they may still need to acquire more and the fruits of the acquisitions are 18-34 months away.

Bethesda showcased what they had coming up for the next fives years, but their quality control problems still dog them from teh mermeers afterward. Every single live feed of that showcase has at least one commentator make a snipe about past bugs - they need to that sentiment seriously. They can say "we are people, games are made by people"; but it feels hollow when they ship games with known crash bugs. They're people...and we're people too.

EA dumped their own wagon of manure on their own heads,and some of that was deserved. But what was not deserved was only a representative from DICE being on stage eating that road-kill crow. EA executives has a deep hand into how "Loot Boxes" were deployed in the last year, their cowardice to take the stage to talk about that was and extremely "eew, yuck" moment of that show. They had nothing fresh and their executives ducked their heads - it came across as sad. And, guess what? EA employees are people too, and just as passionate about making good games. I f EA let the consumers down this past year they totally sucker-punched their employees.

Sony should be admired for infusing live performances art into their shows, but they REALLY need to remember the folks they invited which wasn't the publics was there to do a job at the end of a LONG day. People should have been ushered in to a calm, cool experience. And, that entire showcases should have been viewed from the comfort of a nice seat with a nice view. Don't have a 20-something party planner who just graduated from Illinois State plan your showcase at 6PM for a group of 30-50 years old who have three house of work to do AFTER you lead them around like cattle. Sony wins the prize form trying to promote the most chill with an event that was "not chill" from any angle. ...That kiss thought....wow.

MS and Bethesda showed me the most games I want to play. Ubisoft was ok, I'm hyped for Odyssey but I'm disappointed in the lack of something Tom Clancy or Watch Dogs 3. SE, EA, Nintendo and Sony are all tied for a distant last.

Looking at games, MS did pretty badly IMO. It's the same loop of Gears, Halo, and Forza that they've relied on too much and why they've fallen behind. The news of 5 first party studios gives reason to be hopeful, but the State of Decay devs don't seem very good, unless it's just been budget holding them back. I spend way more time on my X1 than PS4 due to my friends being on X1 and I like the controller better, but their best exclusive right now is Sunset Overdrive, which is a b level game, while Sony has God of War, Uncharted 4, etc. I'll maybe rent Gears 5, but I'll probably buy Spider-Man, Ghosts, The Last of Us 2, and maybe Death Stranding once we get a real look at it.

Looking at presentations, I get why people would say MS won, but as others here have mentioned, they were largely showing off multiplatform games, so to me, it doesn't really matter. Bethesda was surprisingly strong. Square Enix shouldn't even bother to do one.

As someone who thinks this gen has been kinda lame and gone downhill from the last one in overall quality, I would say E3 overall and 2019 looks very good. People saying 2016 and 2017 were some of the best years of gaming ever still makes no sense to me.

@deathstriker: I am looking forward to 2018-2019 in gaming also! The Bethesda conference has sold me on Rage 2, but I am going to get Fallout 76. I will probably dislike Fallout 76, however I said that for multiple games in the past, and I was proven wrong.

@deathstriker: yeah, I voted based on conference showing, not necessarily excitement for whatever company was presenting. MS was just an exciting and fun conference in general for gaming, even if most of the exciting stuff isn’t exclusive.

Gamers, that's who won E3.

Devolver won.

I agree with this outcome 100%.

People saying that Microsoft doesn't have games because a lot of what they showed are 3rd party and available elsewhere need to think about the end consumer a little more. Most people only choose one system during a generation and most people don't watch E3 - but will catch up with the news and/or friends. So having a lot of games available for the system, even if they could be played elsewhere, doesn't matter that much. The message was "We have lots of games to play on this console" and I think that message got out there.

We should all be happy that Microsoft is doing much better - because we win in that case (looking at you Sony for not allowing cross-play)